Comic book artists rarely ever make for good filmmakers. See Frank Miller’s notoriously awful THE SPIRIT (2008) and this 1989 film, an experimental sci fi reverie co-directed by the renowned comic book writer/illustrator Richard Corben. The best thing about this project is the Corben drafted poster art, picturing a bizarre tentacled creature hovering over a mass of skeletons and dead bodies. Corben himself has admitted this picture promises far more than the film actually delivers.
Corben, it should be noted, has dabbled in filmmaking throughout his career, which he began as an animator, and subsequently directed several short films. THE DARK PLANET was Corben’s first and thankfully only live-action feature, proving his filmmaking should remain in the animated realm (as for co-writer director Christopher Wheate, THE DARK PLANET appears to be his only filmmaking credit).
On a distant planet with two moons a race of shape-shifting creatures dwell. They’re opposed by a band of caveman-ish humans, one of whom carries a gun that when fired at the creatures causes them to morph into blobs of jelly. The violence continues inside a cave where the humans are residing, with the gun-wielder caving in the head of one of his fellows.
Unbelievably enough, a normal-seeming, shade-wearing man appears on the scene. He’s chased around by the surviving caveman, and winds up in a rustic clearing where he’s set upon by two guys much like himself. He shoots one and fights off the other, but winds up killed by the proprietor of “New Detroit,” a monitoring station, apparently, for arriving space ships.
From there we return to the caveman from the early scenes, who while schlepping around his lair gets ripped apart by one of the shape-shifters. Around this time New Detroit’s proprietor is attacked by a figure in a mask that when removed reveals a deformed, vaguely humanoid visage. This individual wants an idol the proprietor has in his possession, but is shot before he can get it. It seems the shape shifters are also after the idol, and tear apart New Detroit to get at it.
At this point the action abruptly shifts to “Years later on another part of the planet.” Here a spaceship lands bearing a man and woman. These two have sex and then take a swim in a local lake, where more lasciviousness occurs. Following a dream in which he’s tempted by a robotic seductress the man has more erotic exploits with the gal and…well, I’m not entirely sure just how it all ends up.
What’s wrong with this film? I’ll start with the visuals, which juxtapose video and film stock in clumsy and unharmonious fashion, giving the entire thing a LAND OF THE LOST-ish look. The sound mixing is abominable, marked by absurdly over-modulated footsteps and ambience that’s straight out of a sound library. The avant-garde music score is horrendous, with a plethora of twangs, bleeps and tings that are plain annoying. The special effects are dreadful, with primitive claymation, unconvincing puppetry and poorly integrated matte shots predominating. The acting, accomplished by performers who include Corben’s comic book industry pals Bruce Jones, Herb Arnold and Simon Revelstroke, is best left unmentioned. Finally, the script is a confused and episodic hodgepodge, dropping a potentially intriguing storyline after an hour and abruptly introducing two entirely new characters about whom I never much cared.
All this is a shame, as with decent visuals and a less distracting soundtrack this film could have been good. In fact, if you can look past all the clumsiness you’ll detect a dreamlike aura reminiscent of avant-garde classics like FANTASTIC PLANET and ERASERHEAD, with monsters that might have seemed striking had the special effects been better executed. Matter of fact, as an animated feature THE DARK PLANET would probably be a formidable work. But enough about what might have been, let’s focus on what this film is: a glorified home movie that’s probably better off locked away in its creator’s home.
Vital Statistics
THE DARK PLANET
Directors/Producers/Screenwriters: Richard Corben
Screenplay: Richard Corben, Christopher Wheate
Cast: Bruce Jones, Karen Gilbertson, Richard Corben, Stan Dresser, Herb Arnold, Simon Revelstroke, Saundra Marks